Cell trapping in Y-junction microchannels: A numerical study of thebifurcation angle effect in inertial microfluidics

• Published in: Physics of fluids (1994) Vol. 31; no. 8
• Main Authors: Lan Hongzhi, Fujioka Hideki
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Melville American Institute of Physics 01.08.2019
• Subjects: Bifurcations; Blood circulation; Classification; Computer simulation; Deformation; Design optimization; Efficiency; Flow velocity; Formability; Leukocytes; Microchannels; Microfluidics; Migration; Sorting algorithms; T shape; Trapping; Tumors; Viscoelasticity; Y junctions
• ISSN: 1070-6631; 1089-7666
• DOI: 10.1063/1.5113516

The majority of microfluidic technologies for cell sorting and isolation involvebifurcating (e.g., Y- or T-shaped junction) microchannels to trap the cells of a specifictype. However, the microfluidic trapping efficiency remains low, independently of whetherthe cells are separated by a passive or an active sorting method. Using a customcomputational algorithm, we studied the migration of separated deformable cells in aY-junction microchannel, with a bifurcation angle ranging from 30° to 180°. Single or twocells of initially spherical shape were considered under flow conditions corresponding toinertial microfluidics. Through the numerical simulation, we identified the effects ofcell size, cytoplasmic viscoelasticity, cortical tension, flow rate, and bifurcation angleon the critical separation distance for cell trapping. The results of this study show thatthe trapping and isolation of blood cells, and circulating tumor cells in a Y-junctionmicrochannel was most efficient and least dependent on the flow rate at the bifurcationangle of 120°. At this angle, the trapping efficiency for white blood cells andcirculating tumor cells increased, respectively, by 46% and 43%, in comparison with thetrapping efficiency at 60°. The efficiency to isolate invasive tumor cells fromnoninvasive ones increased by 32%. This numerical study provides important design criteriato optimize microfluidic technology for deformability-based cell sorting andisolation.